Exploring Sound in Music

The last thing I want to talk about in this piece is the sound we're making.

Sound Style and Projection

The sound style, the sound picture, if you like, is like looking at a picture.

• What do we want to portray, sound-wise?
• How do we want to portray this?
• How do we want to project it to the people that are listening to us?

Louis Armstrong's New Orleans Style

In the second section of the piece, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans style, we can actually play with quite a kind of brash sound.

• I've already talked about the hard tongue which we can use.
• We can also use a wider vibrato that's more in keeping with that style.

Maybe when you listened to Louis Armstrong, you heard the vibrato that he used. It's quite wide, and I think you probably agree that it really goes well with that style of playing.

Focus on Air and Vibrato

Let's talk about the sound with the air and the vibrato.

• We covered this in Slinky, but maybe now you can apply it to this piece and change the style of vibrato.
• We can play with many vibratos, but in this instance, let's try the wide one.

I'll play a phrase which finishes on a long note and show you that style there. You heard it, it's a wider vibrato. It's still quite fast, but it's a wider sound.

• Using the air: We push the air, we move the tongue.
• You might want to try moving your jaw as well to create this wider sound.

I'll play it one more time and then you copy. That was a really wide one I played. There.

Experimenting with Wide Vibrato

Now, you have a go!

To explain a bit further about how we get that wide vibrato:

• Here's what I'm doing, but without the trumpet or slower still.
• You can see then that my jaw is moving as well as me changing the speed of the air to get that wide vibrato sound.

You have a go at experimenting with your jaw position and your airspeed, and see if you can create a Louis Armstrong sound.